LUBBOCK, Texas — On Thursday, March 13, EverythingLubock.com reported that a Lubbock man has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman. However, this is one case out of many. According to the CDC, one in three women have been stalked at some point in their lives.
The Lubbock Police Department believes there are more incidents in Lubbock than are being reported.
This is one of the situations that United Martial Arts martial arts teacher Cody Johnson likes to prepare people for during training. His goal is to gain confidence and strength through consistent practice such as wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and kickboxing.
“The greatest deterrent is confidence,” Johnson said. “When you go out, you hold your head high and you're not scared. You're not shy or nervous.”
A martial artist himself, Johnson is passionate about growing through training and building confidence for real-world self-defense.
“So now I'm like, 'If something happens, I'm confident I can handle it,'” Johnson said.
Johnson has seen success stories before his eyes.
“A few years ago, a woman came to me. She had been attacked. Some of the things we did, like wrestling, literally brought out the trauma from her experience. And she It took me months to overcome that, months of training,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he wants people to be confident in any situation because things like stalking can happen anywhere. LPD Lt. Brady Cross agreed, saying stalking can occur in person or through devices such as cell phone apps and Apple Air Tags.
Cross said it's important to always be on the lookout for signs of stalking and to contact police immediately if stalking occurs. He said if someone doesn't call the police, they should at least tell someone close to them and monitor what's going on.
“Trust your instincts if something feels off or wrong, and it probably is,” Cross says.
Johnson hopes more people will come to his studio, strap on their wrists or put on boxing gloves, creating more success stories.
“Being able to use the same kind of violence in a controlled way to rehabilitate someone and then giving them superpowers to go out and do it. That's pretty cool,” Johnson said. .
